About RYF

Our mission is to reduce youth violence and crime and to strengthen youth access to justice in the Americas, from Alaska to Patagonia. We do this by enhancing public, private, civil society and academic partnerships between entities from across the world.

Beneficiaries

By mitigating risk factors we work to reduce youth violence; and by advocating for increased access to justice, we give those in contact with the penal system the opportunity to break the cycle.  We do this with a holistic approach, connecting local and international groups and institutions in a collaborative effort – including stakeholders from the public, private, non-profit and academic sectors – to support the initiative. 

Implementing the Mission

We seek to accomplish this mission by:

  1. Developing research in two areas of intervention: the prevention of youth violence and crime and youth access to justice. Email us at research@rememberyouth.fund
  2. Providing a collaborative platform for groups from civil society, academia, government and private corporations across the Americas to meet and share best practices and lessons learned regarding our two areas of intervention. Email us at outreach@rememberyouth.fund
  3. Progressively building up a trust fund to finance the development of the two areas of intervention.
  4. To become a key informational resource for any organization with an interest in youth violence and justice.
  5. Establishing an affordable and accessible online course in participatory education, to help teachers implement citizenship values in the classroom

History

In 2013, the ideaborn Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Medellin, Colombia, launched a program with the aim of using arts and sports as a tool to prevent youth violence and social exclusion in the Americas, from Alaska to Patagonia. To achieve the program’s goals, the creation of a new, independent organization was proposed to serve as a collaborative platform between public administration, civil society organizations, academia and the private sector. The new entity’s mission would be the promotion of programs related to youth violence and social exclusion in the Americas, as well as to facilitate young people’s access to justice. 

As a result, the American Fund for the Prevention of Juvenile Violence and Access to Justice (Remember Youth Fund) was founded in Washington, DC in 2017 as an independent, non-profit organization.

Administration and Board

Administration

Jaume Guardans – CEO

Jaume is the founder and CEO of ideaborn Consultants, ideaborn Foundation and Born in Commerce. He has been working on the promotion of human rights since his graduation as a lawyer (Barcelona, 1992), and has spent a great deal of his life providing technical assistance in Rule of Law and Good Governance related fields in South East Europe, Africa and Central and South America. Before founding ideaborn in 1999, he worked as International Delegate of the Spanish Red Cross for the African Great Lakes region, as OSCE Ombudsman Liaison officer in Bosnia-Herzegovina and as regional coordinator of the Spanish foundation for the Middle East.

Board of Directors

Abigail Golden-Vázquez

Abigail Golden-Vázquez is vice president at the Aspen Institute and executive director of its Latinos and Society Program, whose goal is to improve understanding of the growing Latino community and increase awareness of its critical importance to the future of the United States. For eight years prior, she developed and managed the Institute’s geographical and topical leadership initiatives that comprise the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Golden-Vázquez joined the Aspen Institute from the German Marshall Fund, where she was director of external relations and a senior manager responsible for partnership development, congressional relations, and public outreach.

Anita Antenucci

Anita Antenucci is Senior Managing Director at Houlihan Lokey, a leading global investment bank with expertise in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, financial restructuring, and valuation.  She has two decades of investment banking experience, including M&A, financing, and valuation. She has worked on the buyside and sellside for a wide array of Fortune 500 and international companies, small-caps, entrepreneurs, and private equity owners. Her clients have included most of the world’s leading aerospace and defense contractors.  She holds degrees from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University and from Northwestern University, and she studied at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques.

Adelaida Gaviria

Adelaida Gaviria is a math specialist and teacher at Coffin Elementary School, a K-2 public school in the town of Brunswick, Maine, in the United States. She has a degree in Engineering Physics from the Colorado School of Mines and studied Science and Philosophy of Education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. She has worked as an ESL teacher, a curriculum specialist, an adjunct professor of education and a science teacher trainer. She gardens fervently at home and as the naturalist-in-residence with her young students at Coffin. She is also known in her rural community and to colleagues, friends and family both in the US and in Colombia as an original and impassioned poet.

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